[ST] Registration Report

[fibrowitch .]

There was a period on Friday when there was no one at the program nexis
desk, and not every person who should have had a packet had one.  Perhaps
some one from program ops could sit with registration handing out packets?

Jan

On Jan 24, 2008 5:34 PM, Rose Fox <rose at tocotox.net> wrote:

> Amy, did you note any trouble with people who were on panels not getting
> their packets? We had several encounters of this sort in the green room:
>
> "Sorry, you don't have a ribbon... are you a program or event
> participant?"
> "Yes, where do I get a ribbon?"
> "It should be in your packet."
> "Oh. What packet?"
>
> I have no idea how widespread an issue this was. Some people didn't seem
> to have seen the table with packets, while others didn't even know there was
> something to look for.
>
> Also, what do you think of the idea of packets for staff, to be handed out
> with badges? That was brought up elsethread and I suspect reg would probably
> get stuck with it in some fashion, so it would be good to get your feedback
> on it.
>
> --Rose
>
>
>
> On Jan 24, 2008 5:07 PM, Amy Chused <achused at solarium.org> wrote:
>
> > [Note:  I took a nasty cold home with me from Arisia.  Please blame
> > any typoes, accidental insults or logical fallacies to
> > report-producing with a cold-clogged brain. --Amy]
> >
> > Arisia Area Head Report
> >
> > Name of Area?
> >
> > Registration
> >
> > What you did?
> >
> > It wasn't just me; it was me and Jasra and LA and Jan pre-con, and
> > lots more people at con, but what we did was:
> >
> > Pre-con: Enter the registrations for everyone with an earned comp from
> > last year.  Process all the year-ahead and on-line registrations for
> > this year.  Send helpful e-mail to folks having trouble using paypal
> > to purchase registrations.  Answer questions from folks about whether
> > or not they were registered.  Work with Dealer's Liaison to get all
> > the dealer registrations processed.  Work with events, programming,
> > gaming, fast track, babysitting, massage den, ops, etc (all the
> > various divisions) to do our best to get everyone's staff comped ahead
> > of time, using both personal e-mail and some spreadsheets shared via
> > Google Docs.  Arrange a rough staffing schedule for registration ahead
> > of time, again using Google Docs.
> >
> > At-con: Staff the registration desk on Thursday for a test-setup and
> > to print staff badges, and then on Friday through Monday for our
> > registrants.  Print many many badges.  Sell year-ahead memberships.
> > Track how close we were to the various caps as the cap was changed,
> > and make sure that the conchair and the E-board were aware as we
> > approached each cap.
> >
> > What went right?
> > 1. Registration in general – 2369 registered, 2280 badged, and the
> > lines never got terribly long.
> >
> > 2. Using the rope and stanchion to make a line area, and having the
> > for pay folks in the far corner, so that the pre-reg folks could get
> > through quickly.  (Although after the Saturday evening rejiggering of
> > the line for the Masquerade, it was never returned to the formerly
> > helpful configuration, and was more confusing than helpful for the
> > last two days.)
> >
> > 3. Dave's software (congo, coconut) rocks!
> >
> > 4. The policy that anyone who should have been comped but wasn't
> > needed a note from their dept/division head (or anyone senior,
> > including Tem) and could get comped quickly – this was not so much
> > hassle that folks didn't get comped as needed, but it allowed us to
> > track how many last minute comps there were (Many – Jasra has all the
> > notes).
> >
> > 5. Creating the book of useful information to hold the schedule,
> > contact information, comp lists and other such useful registration
> > information turned out to be, in fact, useful.
> >
> > 6. Asking for volunteers to loan us space heaters.  They weren't
> > enough, but they did help.  Also, the drape that we borrowed from Tech
> > for the Monday load out – it helped decrease the gusts of sharp cold
> > air, although it didn't do anything to improve the ambient cold
> > temperature.
> >
> > 7. Having the gmail reg at arisia.org archives available at the
> > registration desk.  There were some people whose registrations were
> > missed in the on-line processing, but they were easily found in the
> > archives and fixed.
> >
> > 8. The $10 off Sunday coupon for people who couldn't get in Saturday.
> > To my knowledge, only one person used it, but it was a nice touch.
> >
> > 9. Knowledgeable, hardworking volunteers, both experienced and new,
> > that pitched in and helped reg run smoothly.
> >
> > What went wrong? and What should be done differently next year?
> >
> > 1. The registration area was FREEZING.  The registering members
> > complained about it, but the registration staff really suffered.  Many
> > of us have gotten sick as well. I wore my pretty Arisia staff T-shirt,
> > and then put a long sleeve shirt on that and then put a sweater on top
> > of that and then a winter coat on top of that.  Some of my staff had
> > pretty hall costumes that needed serious compromising to prevent them
> > from freezing.
> >
> > Recommended Solution: I would need to look again to see if it would be
> > possible to move registration into the hallway between the garage and
> > the lobby.  Unfortunately, I suspect that space is just too narrow.
> > Failing that, we need to give some serious thought to heating the
> > registration area.  It was uncomfortable on Friday and Saturday, when
> > the outside temperatures were relatively warm, but on Sunday and
> > Monday, staffing registration was painfully cold.  Perhaps the
> > convention or the hotel could hire the kind of ambient heaters that
> > restaurants hang over doors?
> >
> > 2. We blew the fuse when we had two space heaters on the same circuit.
> >
> > Recommended solution A(preferred): Move registration so that we don't
> > freeze next year.
> > Recommended solution B: No more than one space heater per circuit
> >
> > 3. Dealer's registrations were challenging at best.  The information
> > from dealers liaison was not specific as to how many memberships had
> > been bought at what price for what dealerships and what individual
> > names.
> >
> > Recommended solution:  Add an optional Company Name field, plus/minus
> > a "dealers" check box to the on-line registration form and ask all
> > dealers to purchase their memberships through the on-line registration
> > form.  This will also ensure that the prices dealers purchased their
> > memberships at will be recorded automatically.
> >
> > 4. Many people who believed that they should have been comped weren't
> > comped until the day of the convention.
> >
> > Recommended solution:  This is a multi-part problem.  Some of these
> > folks probably didn't turn in their time sheets.  Some of their time
> > sheets may have gotten lost.  Some of the time sheets that didn't get
> > lost probably weren't transcribed into the registration system
> > properly, and some of the double checking that needed to happen
> > didn't.  We need to be precise about our time sheet tracking this
> > year, but I would recommend one further step:  Pre-con, that we
> > publish an periodically updated alphabetical by last name (+/- sorted
> > by comp type) list of everyone that is in the registration system as
> > comped, and ask department and division heads to check their expected
> > people against that list so that, ideally, we can fix missing comps
> > pre-con.
> >
> > 5. There was no clear registration type for the Student Art Contest
> > finalists and their parents.  Students were given Art Show Comps and
> > their parents/relatives were given single day Event comps, but this
> > was not clearly defined ahead of time.
> >
> > Recommended solution: Define a type for Art Show Student Finalists and
> > Art Show Relatives or declare that they are properly comp'd under
> > either events or art show.
> >
> > 6. There is no mechanism in the registration system to show people
> > purchasing 2 one-day passes.  Some people wanted to purchase
> > Sunday/Monday.  They were given full weekend passes with the price
> > changed to 40, but that throws off our full price full weekend pass
> > count.
> >
> > Recommended solution: Create a Sunday/Monday membership type.
> >
> > 7. Many complaints pre-con about being unable to purchase single day
> > memberships ahead of time, and thus being unable to plan with
> > confidence
> >
> > Recommended solution: After the prices reach the at-the-door price, it
> > would be reasonable to sell non-cap-applicable (ie,
> > Friday/Sunday/Monday) single day badges on-line.
> >
> > 8. One of our volunteers was excellent at cleaning things up so that
> > they couldn't be found the following morning, and at consolidating
> > boxes so that items from multiple sources were in the same storage
> > unit.
> >
> > Recommended solution: Either ask her not to help clean again, or have
> > a manager watcher her closely.
> >
> > 9. Some people didn't reach the desk with IDs out, and some students
> > neglected to bring their student IDs to the con with them.
> >
> > Recommended solution: Better signage next year
> >
> > 10. Having an insomniac night-owl (me) be the person in charge of
> > opening registration every morning did not harm registration, but was
> > rather hard on the insomniac night-owl.
> >
> > Recommended Solution: Next year, we plan to divvy up the
> > responsibilities so that we don't have the same person opening all 4
> > days.
> >
> > 11. A number of events folks whose badges were pre-printed stopped by
> > reg to get their badges.  A number of events folks whose badges were
> > not pre-printed picked up their event packets and then back-tracked to
> > get their badges.
> >
> > Recommended Solution: Since the registration lines weren't that long,
> > we might consider having all the events badges be printed on demand
> > and/or allow the event coordinator to get all their people's badges
> > printed when the event coordinator checks in.  Alternatively, we need
> > to post a sign about which events badges were pre-printed and which
> > were not.
> >
> > 12. A number of panelists were shocked to find that they didn't have 3
> > panels and that they weren't pre-registered.  They would get sent to
> > program nexus to try to negotiate a third panel, and then sent back to
> > registration with a note from programming saying "comp 'em".  Or
> > they'd just pay and be shocked.
> >
> > Recommended Solution:  Better programming <-> panelist communication
> > pre-con.
> >
> > What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?
> > Pre-con, we processed registrations as they came in.  We set deadlines
> > for comp-requests (by January 1 for snark-free comps, by January 8th
> > for snark-lite comps), but received several last minute comp requests
> > regardless.  At con, we manned registration on Thursday from about 5
> > to about 7 or 8, and then on Friday through Monday in accordance with
> > our published schedule.
> >
> > Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
> > I'd like to make the comps deadlines a bit tighter, since having a lot
> > of last minute comps makes it very difficult for us to accurately
> > anticipate the caps.
> >
> > Vendors you used?
> > Stonekeep Consulting (aka Dave Belfer-Shevett & co) provided the
> > hardware, software and pre-illustrated badges. (Thanks for the
> > gorgeous artwork Mouse!)
> >
> > Staples provided paper, pens, notepads, notebook, etc.
> > Trader Joes provided registration staff snacks.
> >
> > Experiments to try next year?
> >
> > HEAT!!!!!
> >
> > Having several different people share responsibility for opening and
> > closing registration.
> >
> > Posting a list of comped people to the staff web site and asking folks
> > to make sure that everyone they expect to be comped is comped, to see
> > if that will give us fewer last minute comps.
> >
> > Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?
> >
> > Hotel liaison and the hotel itself were very helpful when we needed
> > our water and when we blew a fuse.
> > Tech was fantastic about lending us a heavy drape to cut the drafts.
> > Next year we'll ask earlier.
> > Sign shop was very responsive about fixing missing signs, after a slow
> > start that involved missing signs *wry grin*.
> > Program Nexus was great about letting us store our stuff in their room.
> > Ops was great about making sure we had a radio (and finding ours when
> > we lost it), and getting us the apology letter when we capped on
> > Saturday, and coping with after hours reg questions and getting us the
> > Year-Ahead form, even if it was a pain to rip the non-perforated
> > receipt off that form.
> >
> > --Amy Chused
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > staff at arisia.org
> > http://arisia.org/mailman/listinfo/staff
> >
>
>
>
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